Winter Ceramic DM™: THE WINNER!

[Sialia]

Anyone else notice that the Mindflayer Iron Chef's name can be pronounced as "si-a-li-a"? Very, very troubling.

At the time, it amused me no end to think that I was vivisecting my characters for your sadistic amusement.

But I dunno.

Today I feel all kind of . . . soiled by the experience.

Perhaps a rape, an abortion, a vivisection, and a deliberate poisoning of a party member for the good of the party were just a bit too, too much.

There's a reason my persona back in my broadcast jello wrestling days was "Overkill."

I will endeavor to be more restrained in round three's 1930's pulp homage "Sex Slaves of the Elf Lords of Mars"

Might even try sticking to the rules of the contest, for once.

I mean, if Piratecat is going to clean my clock, at least I shouldn't get myself disqualified before the judging.

 

[Piratecat]

at least I shouldn't get myself disqualified before the judging.

Please? Would you mind? Because I'm not quite sure how I'm going to win otherwise. Maybe if I build a story out of monkey tails, dental floss and a lost city of gold....

 

[Sialia]

So, it's like this.

During last round, I was definitely thinking that I might go for a three round story. I left myself loopholes for going on, if I felt like it.

I didn't, for example, kill the whole party, although that was definitely an option I considered. I hate it when the GM favors precious characters so much that nobody can die no matter what. Imagine your top twenty favorite movies/plays/operas without any death scenes.

I mean, did anybody else find it a bit odd that what with all the death and destruction in Lord of the Rings, practically nobody we actually care about gets killed? Sometimes I wonder if the ending wouldn't have been better with Frodo going in after Gollum.
The thing that saves that for me is his inability to really return home after all the goings on. I think my favorite scene of RotK was the bit where his walking thorugh Bag End looking lost at the end of the film. Ok, so he survives, but at what cost?

But in any case, what with Mythago's bias against continuing stories, and me feeling personally a little too worn out on these characters to go on with them, and having so many details to slog through before I can get them moving again, I promised myself I'd ditch 'em and start something fresh for the Final.

Bandeeto spent the better part of last evening trying to convince me that I wasn't done with these characters.

He had a lot of novel ideas--novel meaning "new" as opposed to an indication of how long it would take to tell them--none of which matched with any sense I had of where this story was going , if indeed I were to go on with it.

But after I shot him down about six times, he said "looks to me like you've got a pretty strong idea about what happens next." And I said, "what's that supposed to mean?" and he said "You're not done with them yet."

So.

I still might start something fresh next round, if the photos take me there.

But I if I do, somebody nag me to go back and tell you about what happens to our halflings after this is all over.

 

[Sialia]

One other kind of sad funny thing:

When Bandeeto asked me to tell him what I thought ought to happen next I kept starting and then stalling out and saying--no wait--that won't work--we've lost Tarnby.

He sat there and smirked at me as I realized what a hole I'd painted myself into.

I mean, Tarnby.

Ok, the theory was that Syyalea picked him because the girls are so chaotic inside that he wasn't certain he could work them predictably. Tarnby is a very simple, straightforward kind of guy, so it was a lot easier to guarantee that he'd do what Syyalea expected him to do on stage. Syyalea's the kind of artist that likes his own work to be novel and interesting, but doesn't like his media to provide the surprises.

But underneath that literary justification was an instinctive sense I had that Tarnby was the least developed of the four, and therefore A. In need of some exploration, and B. Expendable.

And now I come to realize that while he was less exciting that the others to write, he was also the only really mentally stable member of the group. One of those glue characters that keeps the party together.

I find that now that I come to think about whether to go on with them or not, I miss him a lot more than I thought I would.

 

[Zhaneel]

I find that now that I come to think about whether to go on with them or not, I miss him a lot more than I thought I would.

Interesting.

Not trying to drain you of your creative talent before the match, but I'm interested in hearing where the characters came from. Are these characters you've had running around in your brain? Did you actually play with players playing these characters? Just curious.

I like the Ceramic DM challenges because it seems that you can write stories, that probably have something to do with a D&D 3.5 world, but not necessarily. The Iron DM or NPC contests scare me because I am so far out of touch with the current rules its not funny (I'm an AD&D 2E girl).

Zhaneel

 

[Nebin]

That's it. For my next entry, I'm tempted to write a bodice-ripper romance novel. Breast-heaving and impassioned glances all around!

"Mom, what's a throbbing member?"

"Umm.. stop reading my romance novel, dear. And it's the member of the native tribe who plays all the drums."

Now Mr. Cat remember that deal we made ? No stories about Lidda and I ,and I won't tell Mrs. C the password to the 'Shoorm safe.

 

[Berandor]

Maybe Tarnby had a lost twin with the exact same statistics, named Darnby?

Or does that only happen in my group?

 

[Sialia]

Interesting.

Not trying to drain you of your creative talent before the match, but I'm interested in hearing where the characters came from. Are these characters you've had running around in your brain? Did you actually play with players playing these characters? Just curious.

Um. Welll . . . the dragon came first. She was a lot different in the early drafts. And she probably came out of reading too much Kage Baker. I didn't plan her "transcendance"--that wasn't supposed to happen. The piece was all about time and ephemera, but I got frustated with it and started to hate the whole story. When I was about to hit the delete key and start the whole piece over, I wrote her temper tantrum instead, and that seemed a better place to take the story.

I knew I needed a bard who's name meant "Fox," as a salute to my first round opponent. So Volpe came first. I don't actually know BardStephenFox all that well, so when I needed to imagine him doing something, I imagined my husband Bandeeto playing him. I didn't realize who Volpe really was in Round One, but by the time Round Two rolled around, I figured out that he was an opportunity to use a character dressing I had always wanted to develop and never had the chance to use before: The Travelling Patent Medicine Salesman.

Lillabo just happened, and I think she's probably mostly a rework of a character I ran in college. Although at a distance of over ten years, I understand some things about that character now that I didn't understand then.

Which is where Mirabelle really started to develop. Mirabelle was the last character to develop any voice. She fought me like anything, and I could not get any life in to her at first. I kept forgetting to write her in to the scenes at all. Finally, as Lillabo started to grate on me as being just a bit too adorable and precious, I decided to give the one of the other characters a chance to voice my frustrations with her. So, she's me, but she's . . um . . heavily influenced, shall we say, by . . other . . uh, players of RPGS that I sometimes might have played with. None of whom happen to be judging this contest, right? Because I wouldn't presume pander to a judge with a cheap shtick like that. Anyway, by Round Two, she was a fully developed personality of her own, and I just let her be without trying to picture who was playing her.

Tarnby was supposed to be a complete jerk. I wanted him to be a greedy, selfish user. But it just didn't work. He slid from jerk to safe date in a few paragraphs, and wound up being a little bit of a Dylrath rework, I'm afraid. I did picture one of my friends playing him in Round 1, but I switched him to a different player for Round 2.

Syyalea just happened. I have no idea where he came from.

Honest.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

I still might start something fresh next round, if the photos take me there.

But I if I do, somebody nag me to go back and tell you about what happens to our halflings after this is all over.

Yes'm. Gladly.

 

[BSF]

I knew I needed a bard who's name meant "Fox," as a salute to my first round opponent. So Volpe came first. I don't actually know BardStephenFox all that well, so when I needed to imagine him doing something, I imagined my husband Bandeeto playing him.

Meh - You know that I like your artwork and your stories.

I thought Volpe was hilarious. Thanks for the laugh.

Syyalea just happened. I have no idea where he came from.

Honest.

Syyalea happens. Hmm, a new addition to my .sig I think.

Thanks for providing a little more insight into your characters and your story! It is interesting to hear how it develops. I am really looking forward to the matchup between you and Piratecat. Will the two of you match up and see who has stronger characterization through individual voices? Will the two of you reach out for something just a little different than what you normally write? Who will have the stronger picture usage? All of these little things I am pondering and the anticipation is delicious.